Guest Post – Suits: A Heart Problem by Bridget Gwanzura

At the beginning of the year my prayer was “Lord refine my character”. I knew I wanted to change my character and wanted a change in my life and for God to take control. However, what I did not know was that through this prayer the Lord would reveal to me who I really am, not who I thought I was. God has taken me down a road of self-discovery ever since. I was going through so many storms in the space of 4 months I just could not take it anymore and I wanted it to stop. As I was thinking and asking the Lord, “Why would You do these things to me?” it hit me – I had prayed “Lord refine my character”. In addition, I realised that it was from this day that my crazy ordeals had started. It was only through the storms that God could show me what He does not like in me, and that which He wants to change in me. What I am learning through this journey is that all of us struggle with our characters and knowing who we really are. Most of us have different suits that we put on for the world to see:

We have the suit we wear for church – we put on the suit of religion, and we love to be called a spiritual person when we are not, to a point where church does not become an experience with God but is more of a show for people.

A suit we wear for work – to feel powerful and get some sort of significance and value.

Then there is the real suit as I may call it, which is when you are by yourself and you take off all the other suits (if you even dare) and the real monster of who you really are confronts you.

Underneath all these suits, all we really have is a heart problem. Because we do not deal with our characters, we are torn apart on the inside but outside we have the greatest suits. All I know is that we do not have a heart like Christ. When we have problems we do not solve them the way Christ would solve them; we solve them the way the world would solve them, and that is a heart problem. We do not love and communicate the way Jesus does. How I know this is, because if Jesus had a problem with someone He would confront the person in love, but we find it ok to go behind the person’s back and talk about them – heart problem. In the past few months, what I have learnt and what God is still teaching me, is that if I do not conquer what is in me it spills over to the people around me. If I am torn apart on the inside, I can never have healthy relationships with the people around me because broken people can only break other people. I know each day He is changing me into the person that He wants me to be. I do not want to look incredible on the outside and completely torn on the inside. God looks at a man’s heart and not at his outward appearance. Because I live for Christ and everything is about Him, I am concerned about what He thinks about my character. I still pray Lord refine my character because my character is nowhere close to being like His. With love, Bridget Gwanzura What suits are you putting on?

Bridget Gwanzura is a young lady who is in love with her Saviour Jesus Christ and is passionate about meeting the needs of those that are less fortunate than most of us. Her dream is to one day open a number of homes for underpriviledged children.

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11 comments

That is so true, Lord help us to be comfortable with showing our real self more. We need to get to a point where we acknowledge that we are scarred and in need of help. God steps in when we acknowledge that we need him. He can handle us with our REAL suits on. Often times we are disappointed with our real self, and then cover it up and say no that cant be the real me. And hence we are in denial. God help us.

Very true, we can not never be fixed if we do not acknowledge that we have a problem. But I think it all starts with being real with yourself. If you are not real with yourself, you can never be real with other people. May the Lord truly help all of us, I know I need a lot of help…

I would say the friend suit- Many times depending on the type of friends we have we want to fit in and impress those friends around us. And sometimes we may be seen as totally different people; to some friends we may be( the great listener, or the most awesome person, a true blessing), when in actual fact that is not true.

Nothing is more painful than pretending to care for someone when you actually don’t. And that is the type of life we live today, we behave in a certain way to some how cover the Real person we are. We are constantly wearing Masks… We can’t be true to others when we are not true to ourselves.

Very very true.. Only God can help us with our true characters. It’s always getting to a point of saying, I’m tired of pretending Lord help me… That’s when God steps in to say I will help you through this process. And it’s not going to be easy. Cause he will show you your ugly self… But with more of the Lord in me and helping me… i want to get to a point were when I look in the mirror I no longer see myself, I see Christ…

So so so so true! Thank you for this Miss Bridget…it’s amazing how when we ask God to make us more like Jesus, we get ever so surprised when the refining process begins…hahahaha! I had the exact same experience recently and man was i stupefied when it seemed like my world was falling apart, and when I realised that God had answered my prayer the joy just overflowed. Thanks for the great article. 🙂

Thank you, *smiles*. The refining process is not an easy process, but its one that must take place in order for change to happen and most importantly for growth… But during that process its hard to smile, its even hard to say thank you Lord for what you are doing… But I’ve been learning to say thank you Lord for this process cause it can only make me a better person.

Well written Bridgette…am inspired. Reminds me of the words of the guy who did open prayer last sabbath. Said most of us ‘keep it together’, meaning that our reality is so much different from the one other people are seeing. His was a call of total surrender where you come to God and you say ‘i need you oh Lord’. Thanks Sonia for this space

Thank you so much … And yes we do tend to keep it together… but we breaking down on the inside. who are we trying to fool. If we hide it or pretend that we are ok,no one can help us. And it is only when we accept we have problem when the Lord can help us. He is not going to force Himself to help us. We have to be willing to let Him take control.